Thanks to kitteh and to Metafilter

March 14, 2017 5:33 PM

I'm writing to give a shoutout to kitteh's post from January about homelessness and menstruation.

I'm a guy in my 30s, and I had never once considered this issue before. I'm also a first-year in an MSW program who is completing a field placement at a health clinic for the homeless in Chicago that has not had supplies to provide to our participants, so kitteh's post gave me a lot to think about.

Since seeing that post I've been working on finding a way to help fix this, and I'm excited to say that today our clinic partnered with another great non-profit that works on collecting donated products and was looking for a partner to help with distribution. My clinic sees over 4000 women and trans men every year, and we're officially on the road to providing them with free tampons, pads, and liners when they need them.

I won't link to fundraising, but I wanted to share my news because I'm excited for what this means for our population, and because I'm so grateful for the Metafilter community and all that I've learned here over the years. Kitteh, I want you to know that you've made a difference in my life and in the lives of a lot of Chicagoans.

posted by soonertbone to MetaFilter-Related at 5:33 PM (20 comments total)

This is amazing!
posted by anya32 at 6:11 PM on March 14, 2017

You, sir, are a good egg.

And cheers to Kitteh, who gives all sorts of great insight here.
posted by mochapickle at 6:15 PM on March 14, 2017 [7 favorites]

This is so fantastic!
posted by john_snow at 6:28 PM on March 14, 2017

Hey thanks for sharing that. And nice work!
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:52 PM on March 14, 2017

I appreciate that you're not linking to fundraising here, but if you could put something in your profile that'd be great.
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 7:12 PM on March 14, 2017 [5 favorites]

I agree. That was a timely and thoughtful post and kitteh is a good poster and commenter.
posted by jonmc at 7:13 PM on March 14, 2017

Timing. I just saw this article about a small program in Tucson.
posted by bongo_x at 8:10 PM on March 14, 2017

Yeah, well done!
posted by Joseph Gurl at 11:18 PM on March 14, 2017

This is great! Thanks for doing this, and may it be an inspiration for more such programs.
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 11:35 PM on March 14, 2017

Oh. Well, thank you for the shout-out and lovely MeMail!

I'm on the Blue less and less right now--unemployed currently so trying hard to be productive & have put a Chrome extension on my desktop that limits web browsing to fave sites--but I'm glad this is getting talked about more. I'm hoping to do some sort of women's beer event locally where admission will include bringing sanitary napkins & tampons for donation to a local women's shelter.

I've never been part of a MeTa subject post before! Thank you!
posted by Kitteh at 5:37 AM on March 15, 2017 [46 favorites]

Bravo!!
posted by Amy NM at 5:59 AM on March 15, 2017

That's amazing! Thanks to Kitteh for talking about this here, and thanks to you for listening and then acting on what you learned!

(For anyone else who is interested in doing more about this issue but who isn't as linked in as our lovely OP: one exciting group in my town called Project Flow has regular happy hour events where people are invited to come drink, socialize, and bring menstrual products to donate. It is "run" by a few friends who just coordinate the events-- they don't have a larger org or even a website. So even if you don't have the reach of a cool person like soonertbone, you could easily start something like this in your own community.)
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:06 AM on March 15, 2017 [6 favorites]

Nicely done!

Donation events are a great way to raise awareness about this issue. I had not really realized how bad the issue was until Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (everyone's favorite goth perfumer) started doing pad drives at some of their monthly events at their North Hollywood office, giving away an exclusive sample for a donation.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:28 AM on March 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is so great! The best thing about MetaFilter is how so many people here are objectively better than me but dont make me feel bad about it; it just inspires me to also be better.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:02 AM on March 15, 2017 [18 favorites]

MetaFilter: so many people here are objectively better than me but dont make me feel bad about it
posted by Melismata at 11:28 AM on March 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

Reader, I married her.
posted by Shepherd at 12:53 PM on March 15, 2017 [30 favorites]

MCMikeNamara: we should do a repeat pubcrawl to benefit this org--let's talk. assuming the bastards don't get me so down I never get out of bed again
posted by crush-onastick at 1:16 PM on March 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Thank you for this work, and thank you for mentioning trans men - we get left out of this discussion quite often.
posted by spinifex23 at 6:20 PM on March 15, 2017 [11 favorites]

kitteh's post was great! I am headed to my volunteer gig where a lot of folks are homeless, and I'm going to ask if women in our area have access to free menstrual supplies or if we can keep some out so people can take some. Thanks for helping expand my awareness, kitteh :).
posted by Excommunicated Cardinal at 10:31 AM on March 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

Bendy mentioned Camions of Care ( now called Period. )in the thread as a Portland group but they have chapters at schools (high school and college) all over.
posted by vespabelle at 7:35 PM on March 17, 2017